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Anne Hathaway admits she may have treated female director with “internalised misogyny”

Actress Anne Hathaway has confessed that she may have not trusted a female director as much as she has done with males due to “internalised misogyny”.

Hathaway has always stood as a prominent feminist public figure and advocate for women’s rights, but has recently admitted that she may have had subconscious sexist preconceptions when filming for the popular movie One Day.

One Day director Lone Scherfig has spoken up in the past about how being a female film director alters the creative process. She told IndieWire in 2011: “Maybe I can have access to that [affection for characters] because I am not a man.

“There is also a kind of admiration that they would get from a male director that I don’t do.”

Now, Hathaway has expressed her regret over not fully trusting the female filmmaker. Speaking on Popcorn with Peter Travers, the Les Misérables actress admitted: “I really regret not trusting her more easily.

“And I am to this day scared that the reason I didn’t trust her the way I trust some of the other directors I work with is because she’s a woman.

“I’m so scared that I treated her with internalised misogyny.

“I’m scared that I didn’t give her everything that she needed or… I was resisting her on some level. It’s something that I’ve thought a lot about in terms of when I get scripts to be directed by women.”

She added: “I’m getting red talking about this, it feels like a confession, but I think it’s something we should talk about.

“When I get a script, when I see a first film directed by a woman, I have in the past focused on what was wrong with it. And when I see a film… directed by a man, I focus on what’s right with it.

“I can only acknowledge that I’ve done that and I don’t want to do that anymore… I, before I realised this, had actively tried to work with female directors. And I still had this mindset buried in there somewhere.”

The 34-year-old actress continued to describe how difficult it is for women to get “the reins to anything”.

“That journey is way harder than it should be. It’s not equal,” she said. “And I wonder if it’s about the thought process like the one I just talked about. About undervaluing what it takes to make your first film.”